


Panic Station

by percontes



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-07-16 00:33:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7245052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/percontes/pseuds/percontes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luhan wants to be Minseok's friend. Minseok is oblivious.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Panic Station

Kim Minseok would rather die than let Gryffindor win the Quidditch Cup this year.

Minseok’s always been the competitive kind, of course, but it’s never been this bad, it’s never been this important. This year is different, you see, this year it’s even more crucial that Ravenclaw, or Slytherin or Hufflepuff for that matter, beat those obnoxious Gryffindor kids at Quidditch. It’s Minseok’s last year at Hogwarts, and Merlin be damned if he gives the school’s poster boy Luhan yet another reason to boast and tell everyone how wonderful he is. Minseok’s quite surprised Luhan’s head hasn’t imploded yet.

“Give it a rest, will you, hyung?”

But Minseok’s not listening. All morning he’s been thinking of different ways to boycott Gryffindor’s Quidditch practice and ways to turn his own disappointingly weak team in World Cup material before the competition starts. He’s pretty sure he could take down Baekhyun without getting into any trouble, he could just sneak a few drops of laxative into his morning pumpkin juice, and he’d be out. And if he could just cast a spell to make Chanyeol fly his broomstick into a brick wall, no one would suspect anything other than Chanyeol being distracted, as usual. Minseok sighs, staring down at his untouched pumpkin pie.

“Earth to Minseok?”

He wonders who’d be more likely to win the Quidditch Cup. Slytherin has Yifan. That guy’s one of the clumsiest Quidditch players Minseok’s ever seen, but also one of the fastest. If anyone can catch the Snitch in record time, it’s him. Hufflepuff has Junmyeon and Yixing. They’re not that good at tactics, but Minseok’s always admired their ability to make everyone on their team show up on time for practice _and_ with a huge smile on their face. Now, _Ravenclaw_ , that’s a whole different thing, Minseok _knows_ their team isn’t nearly as strong as it could be, as it has been these past couple of y— _BANG!!!_

Minseok looks up from his pumpkin pie, startled, and sees Kyungsoo, his much younger dongsaeng who’s been sitting across from him the entire time, looking less than pleased – Minseok’s not quite sure whether it’s because of his lacking eyesight this time – and a monster of a leather bound book in front of him.

“Kyungsoo, what the f—“

He realises that, along with most of the students sitting at the Ravenclaw table, about half of the Great Hall is staring at the two of them. Minseok tries not to let their glares get to him, but he feels his cheeks heat up all the same.

“I said, _give it a rest_ , will you, _hyung_?”

“Give _what_ a rest, exactly?”

Kyungsoo raises one bushy eyebrow, and says, “You’re thinking about Quidditch again.”

“I’m not.”

“Don’t lie. I can practically smell it on you.”

Minseok scrunches up his nose, “Gross,” he smiles, and adds, “So, what if I am?”

Kyungsoo looks down at the massive copy of _A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration_ by Emeric Switch that he slammed on the table. The edges of the book are covered in tiny, golden stars, and despite how old the damn thing is, it still smells so strongly of leather, it makes Minseok a little sick.

“What do you want me to do with this, Kyungsoo?”

“What I want, hyung, is for you to forget about Quidditch, and to focus on what’s important.”

Kim Minseok wouldn’t know what’s more important than Quidditch. Quidditch’s all he’s been able to think about ever since he arrived at Hogwarts as an eleven-year-old muggleborn who’d just been told flying broomsticks were real and he could use a wand to unlock doors and make objects invisible. He had never cried so hard in his entire life. His parents thought he didn’t want to leave them, but, to be honest, he had just never been so goddamn happy.

“But, Kyungsoo,” he whines, shoving away the plate of pumpkin pie in front of him, and resting his head on the table. “I don’t wanna.” He hears Kyungsoo snort, and he smiles.

*

*

*

On Tuesday, despite Kyungsoo’s many protests, Minseok decides to skip their early morning study date to observe (“ _Spy_ , hyung, you’re going to _spy_ on them! Admit it!”) one of the Gryffindor team’s training sessions.

They’re lucky. It’s sunny, and there isn’t much wind to bother them while flying.

Minseok can tell there are quite a few giggling students scattered across the stands. He isn’t at all surprised, the Gryffindor team has always been able to draw quite the audience. It doesn’t bother him at all, though, in fact he rather enjoys the sight of it. Kyungsoo has told him on several occasions that the Gryffindor Quidditch players, Chanyeol and Baekhyun in particular, are known to get distracted by the many compliments thrown their way. So much so, that, in the past, Captain Luhan has had to spend half of their training sessions stopping the other players from dramatically flexing their muscles.

He hears one of the younger students scream Park Chanyeol’s name, and sees said boy, whose height makes him particularly easy to recognise, immediately stand up straighter. Minseok snorts and whispers a barely audible “unbelievable” under his breath.

In the Quidditch pitch it’s always impossible to hear what any of the players are saying, unless they start screeching like Chanyeol’s number one fan, but right now it doesn’t matter much. Minseok hopes he’s had enough experience playing Quidditch to make out their tactics by just observing them.

It’s clear to Minseok that Luhan’s putting all of his faith in Kim Jongdae, Gryffindor’s new Seeker. The boy is young, but about Minseok’s height, though much skinnier and much more agile. He’s not nearly as fast as Slytherin’s Seeker Yifan, but Minseok reckons Jongdae will do a much better job at swerving and avoiding the Bludgers.

The rest of the training session is disappointingly uneventful, so Minseok let’s himself get distracted by Chanyeol’s admirer. The boy is huddled together with his other friends, all Hufflepuffs, with the exception of one Ravenclaw girl. Minseok feels oddly affronted, and wonders why he’s never seen her at any of the Ravenclaw training sessions, or maybe, he thinks, he’s just never noticed her. He decides to complain about it to Kyungsoo later.

*

*

*

Minseok tries to leave the Quidditch pitch before any of the Gryffindor players notice he was there. The last thing he wants is to be surrounded by a group of loud and obnoxious teenagers. He holds his bag tightly to his chest and awkwardly powerwalks his way from the stands. He can hear students lingering behind him, giggling and whispering, undoubtedly hoping to get a chance to talk to any of the players.

“Minseok!” he hears a familiar voice shout.

Minseok tightens his grip on his schoolbag, and feels his heart start to race. He tries to walk a little bit faster without it being obvious that he’s trying to get away. He really doesn’t want to talk to anyone right now, he just wants to get back to the Ravenclaw common room.

“Minseok,” the voice – _Luhan’s voice_ – repeats, “Hold on a second!”

Luhan has no trouble catching up with him, but Minseok’s still trying to look for ways to not have to engage in conversation with him.

“I didn’t know you were planning on watching us practice today,” he says, awkwardly half-jogging next to Minseok, as Minseok maintains his brisk walking pace.

Minseok wonders if he could find a bush to hide in.

“Came to see how painful it’ll be when we beat you, huh?” Luhan asks, and he sounds smug now, so smug Minseok wants to scream at him for five minutes, but he won’t, because that would make people stare at him. Instead he does nothing, says nothing.

“Jongdae,” Luhan starts, “That’s our new Seeker, by the way,” he says, as if he hasn’t been boasting about him for weeks, “He’s really good. I think he might be better than Yifan, even.”

“Oh,” Minseok finally speaks up, trying to sound as if he’s interested, but instead his voice comes out small and quiet, as if he’s too shy to say anything, “Really?”

“Yeah, real smart, too. He’s been pranking Baekhyun and Chanyeol, can you believe it?”

This makes Minseok smile to himself. He finds it difficult to imagine anyone being able to prank those two devious children. They’ve been causing havoc and making the teacher’s lives a living hell ever since they arrived at Hogwarts four years ago. Minseok’s always found it irritating how they’re able to get away with most of their antics, even the ones that could cause serious harm, but he’s never been surprised by it, seeing as Luhan’s been a Prefect and is now Head Boy, and seeing as Luhan _adores_ Chanyeol and Baekhyun.

“They deserve it,” Minseok says, quietly.

Luhan laughs at this, “Couldn’t agree more.”

“Hey, Minseok,” Luhan says, “The other Quidditch players and I, we’ve been, uhm,” and he sounds like he’s nervous about whatever he’s going to say next, “We’ve been talking about how you’ve never been to one of our parties before,” he adds, and he stops doing the awkward half-jog thing, and Minseok stops doing the awkward powerwalk thing, “There’s one next Saturday night in the Hufflepuff common room. We’d really like it if you could come.”

“Oh,” Minseok says, a little taken aback, his voice sounding even more feeble than usual, “I, uhm, I’ll think about it, I’ll see if,” and Minseok wants to say _, I’ll see if Kyungsoo and I aren’t planning on studying together_ , but realises how ridiculous that sounds, and instead repeats, “Yeah, I’ll think about it.”

It’s as if Luhan can read his mind, because he smiles, and Minseok feels as if it’s a little condescending, and he says, “You can bring Kyungsoo, if you’d like. Most of us bring friends. It’s all right.”

Minseok nods, “Yeah, I’ll think about it.”

*

*

*

For days Minseok can’t stop thinking about the fact that Luhan and the other Quidditch players think about him and talk about him and complain that he’s never at any of their stupid parties, and Minseok can’t help but feel uncomfortable not knowing what else they could be saying about him.

“Complain? Who said anything about complaining?” Kyungsoo sighs.

“What else does ‘We always talk about you never showing up at our parties’ mean?”

“It means they want to hang out with you.”

“Who on earth would want to hang out with me?”

“Lots of people,” Kyungsoo says, but Minseok raises his bushy eyebrows at him, so he adds, “Me.”

“You’ll come, right?”

“Will it make you feel better if I do?”

Minseok nods, and tries very hard to give Kyungsoo his best helpless puppy impression.

“Sure, hyung, I’ll come.”

*

*

*

On Fridays Ravenclaw has Herbology with Gryffindor during first period, which Minseok never looks forward to, and Transfiguration with Slytherin during second period, which he dreads slightly less, but could live without all the same. Herbology class means having to listen to Luhan talk out of his ass about Quidditch, how absolutely wonderful he is at everything, more Quidditch, how absolutely wonderful _Kim Jongdae_ is at everything, and also more Quidditch. One hour of Herbology never fails to reduce Minseok’s lifespan with five years.

Minseok’s always way too early to all of his classes, and this morning is no different. Twenty minutes before first period starts, Minseok makes his way to the Herbology greenhouses, his textbook clutched tightly to his chest. As he passes the staircase that leads down to the Hogwarts kitchen and the Hufflepuff common room, he notices Huang Zitao sitting on the top step, looking absent.

Despite being Head Boy of Ravenclaw, Minseok isn’t really known to initiate conversations with students he barely knows, especially when they’re dealing with more emotional problems. He has no trouble scolding kids who are up to no good, but present him with a student who seems ready to burst into tears and Minseok will run for the door. There is, however, no other Head Boy or Girl in sight, and Minseok knows he’ll feel bad for leaving a student all by himself in a time of need.

Minseok walks up to Zitao as quietly as possible, and hunches over him slightly, “Zitao,” Minseok whispers, but Zitao doesn’t seem to hear him. “Zitao,” he says, a little louder this time, gently poking the student’s shoulder.

Zitao seems to snap out of his momentary daze and turns his head to look at Minseok, “Oh, Minseok hyung,” he says, and smiles politely, “Is something wrong?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Minseok tries to sound confident, like he knows what he’s doing, like he’s here to solve everyone’s problems, but instead his voice sounds shaky. Minseok closes his eyes for a fleeting moment, trying to ignore the feeling of embarrassment taking over his mind.

“I’m all right, hyung,” Zitao says, trying to look and sound reassuring, but Minseok is not convinced.

“Why are you sitting here by yourself?”

“Oh,” Zitao says, brushing his fingers through his blond hair, “I’m waiting for breakfast to be over, so I can check up on the elves.”

“The elves?”

“They work so hard,” Zitao sighs, “And they barely get to take breaks,” his voice and eyes fill with sadness as he adds, “I just like to make sure they’re doing all right.”

“You help them?” Minseok asks. He’s read and heard a lot about how poorly elves are treated even at Hogwarts, but he has to admit that he’s never paid much attention to it.

Zitao shakes his head, “No, they won’t allow that,” he smiles, but it’s a sad sort of smile, “They don’t like being helped. They just enjoy my company.”

“I’m sure that makes them very happy,” Minseok says, trying to sound comforting, but feeling like an idiot. All that’s missing, Minseok thinks, is calling Zitao _son_ and giving him a fatherly pat on the back.

It makes Zitao smile again, though, brighter this time, and that makes Minseok’s embarrassment disappear just the slightest bit.

“You should join me, hyung,” Zitao says, suddenly rising to his feet, which makes Minseok back away a little bit.

“Oh, honestly,” Minseok tries to smile, “I would love to, but I, uhm, I have to get to Herbology right now.” Not wanting to disappoint Zitao, though, he quickly adds, “Next time, okay? I promise.”

Zitao nods, still smiling just as brightly as he did before. “Sure, hyung, I don’t want to keep you from attending class,” he says, “I’ll see you at the party, right?”

“Party?”

“You know,” Zitao sounds nervous now, the kind of nervous you’d get when you just told someone about a party they weren’t invited to, “The Quidditch one,” he adds painfully slowly, “In the Hufflepuff common room.”

The mere combination of the words party, Quidditch, and Hufflepuff common room make Minseok’s stomach clench, and his mind immediately starts spouting theories. Did they hang posters all over the common rooms saying he was finally going to attend one of their parties? Did they find a way to make laptops work inside of Hogwarts and is everyone talking about him during their late night Skype sessions? Do they have a secret underground hangout that everyone’s invited to except for him?

Minseok wants to scream, but takes a deep breath and calmly says, “Oh, yes, that one, uhm, sure, I’ll see you there.”

*

*

*

Minseok makes it to Herbology just in time, and as soon as he enters the greenhouse he can tell something’s not as it’s supposed to be. He’s usually the first person to arrive at the greenhouses, but this time, due to running into Zitao, he’s last, and for some reason the only seat that’s left at the massive tables full of gruesome plants is the one next to Luhan.

During the thirty-second-long walk to his seat, Minseok hopes, _prays_ , something happens so he doesn’t have to spend the next hour sitting next to Luhan. A stomach ache, an urgent appointment with the headmaster, a meteorite, a fire-breathing dragon, the ground swallowing him whole. But nothing happens, so he sits down next to Luhan and tries his hardest to smile at him as politely as possible.

“What happened to you?” Luhan asks.

Minseok gives him a confused look, not knowing what Luhan could be talking about.

“Your face,” he says, pointing at Minseok, “It looks like you ran a marathon to get here.”

Minseok puts a hand to his cheek and feels that his face is burning hot. He sighs, opens his textbook, and puts on his gloves.

“Don’t forget to put on your gloves, too, Luhan,” Minseok says without much sincerity in his voice, “Don’t want you to get your fingers gnawed off by these things.”

Luhan looks at the tiny monstrosities on the table in front of him. The plants are little but menacing, with long branches that have scrunched up leaves resembling round and ugly faces attached to them. The faces have angry eyes and sharp teeth that could puncture your skin almost immediately. Luhan makes ugly faces back at them to show that he’s not in the least bit intimidated.

“Stop fooling around, Luhan.” Minseok sighs.

“You’re so good at telling people off, Minseok,” Luhan replies, but there’s no bite to his statement. “Honestly, you have a gift.”

“I’m betting your gift isn’t your sense of humour.”

“Aish,” Luhan says, but he’s smiling, “That hurt.”

“Good.”

Luhan has trouble staying concentrated, and Minseok has trouble not smacking Luhan in the mouth, but for the most part Luhan doesn’t seem to be that much of a bother as Minseok anticipated. Luhan is more focussed on Minseok’s grotesque plant than he is on his own and he keeps reading along as Minseok tries to decipher how to decapitate the branches, but he stays relatively quiet, until about fifteen minutes before the end of class, when he says, “Hey, Minseok,” but Minseok doesn’t reply. “Hey,” he says again.

Minseok sighs, “What is it, Luhan?”

Luhan grins and points at one of the particularly ugly and wrinkled heads attached to the plant in front of him, and says, “That one looks like you.”

Before Minseok can do or say anything, the little face opens its mouth, revealing two rows of razor sharp teeth and a short forked tongue, and latches onto the tip of Luhan’s finger, biting straight through the fabric of his glove. Luhan jumps up from his seat, knocks back his chair, and lets out the most high-pitched shriek Minseok’s ever heard, followed by a series of profanities he hopes their Herbology professor doesn’t hear.

Some of the other students in the greenhouse start screaming as loudly and dramatically as Luhan, others have difficulty containing their laughter, and Minseok’s certain at least three of them are holding onto their friends in an attempt not to faint, him being one of them.

Their Herbology teacher, a short and skinny dark-skinned woman, comes rushing past the other kids, takes in the ridiculous scene before her, and uses her wand to paralyse the head that’s still holding onto Luhan’s finger for dear life, as well as the other ones trying to get a piece of Luhan’s hand. As soon as Luhan’s finger is freed, he removes both of his gloves and studies the damage that’s been done. His entire right hand is covered in blood, and he’s definitely going to need stitches.

“How did this happen?” their teacher asks, but she doesn’t wait for anyone to reply, “Minseok,” she says, her voice loud and angry, and Minseok’s heart stops for a second, expecting to be blamed for the incident. “Take Luhan to the hospital wing.”

*

*

*

“I can’t believe you did something so stupid,” Minseok says as he guides Luhan through the hallways and to the hospital wing.

Luhan is clutching an already bloodstained towel around his injured finger, his voice sounding weak and wobbly as he says, “I didn’t think it would do that.”

“Are you serious?” Minseok practically yells, but realising how loud he just was, he clears his throat, and feels a blush creeping up his neck, “Of course it would do that, Luhan, that was the entire goddamn point of the goddamn class.”

“I just wanted to get you to talk to me.”

“By letting a demon plant eat your fingers? Wow,” Minseok raises both eyebrows, “Your gift certainly isn’t your intelligence either.”

Luhan snorts loudly at this and starts to laugh, which startles Minseok.

“How can you think this is funny?”

“I don’t know,” Luhan says, his voice shaking with laughter, “It just is.”

“Honestly,” Minseok rolls his eyes, “You’re unbelievable.”

Luhan flashes him a cocky smile, as if he’s just been given a compliment to be proud of, and honestly, Minseok isn’t even surprised. Minseok decides to walk ahead of Luhan, so he doesn’t have to look at him anymore.

“Got you to talk to me, though.”

Minseok huffs, “What do you mean?”

“Don’t think you’ve ever talked to me this much before.”

Minseok turns around to look at Luhan and sees that he’s smiling brightly, looking more than pleased with himself and the situation. It makes Minseok wonder whether he’s always been this difficult to talk to. He knows he’s shy and not very talkative, but that doesn’t mean he’s not approachable, right? _Right?_

The two of them walk in silence until they reach the hospital wing. By then Luhan’s towel’s leaving no trace that it was once snow white.

“You need me to go with you to hold your other hand?” Minseok asks.

Luhan smiles, and says, “I can take it from here,” he opens the door to the hospital wing, and before going inside, adds, “Thank you, Minseok.”

*

*

*

Minseok gets back to the Ravenclaw common room later than usual. When he arrives, most students have already left for second period, but Kyungsoo is still waiting for him, a book in his lap that looks bigger than he is. Minseok sits down in the chair opposite him and lets out a deep and long sigh.

“You’re late,” Kyungsoo states.

“A demon plant tried to eat Luhan,” Minseok replies, which makes Kyungsoo raise an eyebrow in question, “Honestly,” Minseok smiles, “Don’t ask.”

Minseok fiddles with his tie for a while before plucking up the courage to ask, “Kyungsoo, do you think I’m difficult to talk to?”

Without having to think about it, Kyungsoo replies, “No.”

Not really satisfied with the answer, Minseok tries again, and this time asks, “Do you think other people find it difficult to talk to me?”

“Oh,” Kyungsoo says, “Yes.”

The reply is what Minseok expected, but it’s a blow to the face all the same. He sighs and leans back in his chair, wondering how many times he’s blown people off without realising it.

“Why do you care all of a sudden, hyung?” Kyungsoo asks.

“It’s not that I never cared,” Minseok begins, “It’s that I never realised, I guess.”

“Says the person who wanted to hide in a bush because of Luhan.”

Minseok snorts, “ _That_ is an entirely different situation,” he says, “If you ever talked to that guy for more than five minutes, you’d want to get swallowed whole by a goddamn dragon.”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, but smiles. “If it bothers you that much, hyung, you can practice your social skills at the party.”

“Why?” Minseok says, exasperated, the familiar feeling of dread spreading in his chest, “Why’d you have to mention that? I forgot about the party for, like, five seconds, Kyungsoo.”

“Don’t worry so much, hyung,” Kyungsoo reassures, “It won’t be that bad.”

But Minseok has his eyes closed, thinking of all the things that could go wrong, of all the things he will mess up, of all the things that might ostracise him from Hogwarts society. It’s enough to make the invisible hand inside of his body clench tightly around his stomach, an invisible hand that won’t disappear until Luhan’s stupid party is over and dealt with.


End file.
